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Review: The Goin' Coastal Tour

Photos by Shane Keyser/The Star

By all standards, Kenny Chesney is the reigning heavyweight in modern country music.  Who else could draw close to 50,000 fans into Arrowhead Stadium on a sweltering Saturday?The answer to that question could be the band who played right before the headliner at Chesney’s six-hour “Goin’ Coastal Tour.”

Review: Paul Thorn

In an era in which artificially manufactured musicians and internet sensations regularly become instant pop stars, it's comforting to know that the conventional means of audience development still works.  Steady touring rather than participating in a televised contest or creating a clever music video seems to be paying off for Paul Thorn.  The journeyman singer-songwriter attracted over 500 fans to Knuckleheads on Friday.  

Your 'Goin' Coastal' schedule

Here are all the starting times for Saturday's show at Arrowhead featuring Kenny Chesney and the Zac Brown Band. Parking will be $27, cash only.

KC to give AC/DC some TLC

Sunday night’s installment of the monthly Sonic Spectrum tribute series at RecordBar will honor one of the most beloved hard rock bands ever. Four local bands will have their way with the music of AC/DC: Federation of Horsepower, the Architects, Faster Than Hell and Mark Smeltzer & the Country Shags.

Amid grief, band celebrates life lost and the music it created

Cadillac Flambe (from left): Dave Duly, Havilah Bruders, Mike Payne (seated) and Kris Bruders. Payne is sitting on a 1957 Oahu Amp that belonged to band member James “Pappy” Garrett, who died after a car wreck. Photo by Jim Barcus/The Star

The band was conceived in rural Pleasant Hill, Mo., at a farmhouse in the middle of nowhere, sometime in 2003. That’s when, through a mutual friend, Kris Bruders met Mike Payne, who lived in that farmhouse with his wife, Amanda.

One night they sat around on the front porch of that house, smoking cigarettes, drinking beer and playing music. “We didn’t really know each other,” Payne said. “But we had a few magical moments. We connected.”

Review: Snoop and HoD

Photos by Todd Zimmer

The man billed as "The King of Rap" was upstaged and outclassed by a relatively unheralded Kansas City-based band Tuesday at Crossroads KC.

Review: Sade

Photos by Rich Sugg/The Star

This era in pop music is becoming infamous for its artifice, for the technology that polishes and perfumes inferior, unfinished talent and for the pop tarts who hide behind it.  So it’s refreshing to catch a heady whiff of artistry and, even better, genuine stardom, which is what Sade Adu brought to the Sprint Center on Tuesday night.

On the way: some yacht rock

Michael McDonald and Boz Scaggs will sail into Starlight Theatre on Oct. 7, a Friday. Tickets on sale this Friday. You can get a four-pack for as low as $79.

Janelle Monae to open for Katy Perry

On her list of tour dates, The KCK phenom has Sprint Center listed on Aug. 17, the night of the Katy Perry show. 

Review: Fleck & Hornsby

Photos by Rich Sugg/The Star

Anyone who doubts there’s an appetite for instrumental music and songwriting infused with jazz should have been at Crossroads KC on Friday night, where nearly 1,500 fans showed up to watch and hear Bruce Hornsby & the Noisemakers and Bela Fleck and the original version of his Flecktones.